Whew. It took for-freaking-ever to get everything transfered over with rating and word counts and such but I am so, so pleased to announce that I've updated my recs website in a huge fashion. Now powered by wordpress, all of my recs are totally searchable by fandom, author, wordcount, ratings and more.

With over 340(!!!) stories to read, maybe you'll find some you've not read before; also I normally just rec stories as they come to me but I might be going back to rec some old favorites now that I've finished with the site update.

It's a new url too, so if you have bookmarks, delicious or otherwise, don't forget to update them!

[ theantimodel's fic recs ]

Some of my favorite recipes, because saffronlie asked.

( Gingerbread Cookies )


( Decorators' icing )


( Gingerbread cake )

There's something about switching styles that's a bit like moving into a new house. Everything has to be just right, and you spend hours figuring out where to put things. I've been resisting s2 styles since their implementation, mostly because I had everything organized just right under my s1 style. But the tags broke me. They're were just too useful to ignore. So. new style. check it out: theantimodel.

I'm using flexible squares with a whole lot of customizations. I recommend checking out s2flexisquares if you're thinking about switching, there are a lot of helpful add ons detailed there. Also, wistfuljane is a font of knowledge and helpfulness. Check out her post on tags. So far I've got 2005 fully tagged. It took a while, I'm not exactly looking forward to finishing the job, but it will do my OCD brain good to have a greater level of organization. For your reference: you can check out all of my tags on my journal's frontpage. I've got links to all the media I've shared by fandom as well as recs and polls and whatnot. So. If you ever see anything listed under media that you missed, feel free to ask me to reupload it.

Other things: If you have a mac and you aren't using xjournal I think you're missing out. The new version supports tags, very cool!

I really meant to go to critical mass tonight. It would have been cool, but I lost track of time doing all the lj configuration. I kinda suck. Especially since my out of town friends actually came down for the ride. Clearly, they are more dedicated than I.

I have a flickr account. If any of you are interested. I usually post real-life pictures and stuff there. I posted pics of last month's critical mass over there in case any of you are interested.

I have a fic recs journal (anti_recs) and hmmm, I think I started it because I didn't want to spam my flist with random posts of names and links, but lately I've been making much more traditional recs posts over there. And for sake of organization (having all my recs separated into one easy to find place) I'm going to keep posting them but I think I'm going to start posting them here too.

[Poll #519758]

powrhug started it, but I've been meaning to post about this for a while.

Make-Up/Skin Care Recs

Face: I have pretty heavily combination skin. Oily in the t-zone, dry cheeks, the works. And I've always been a big fan of skin care products, I used to use Clinique, but I've moved on to Origins in the last couple years. The have a great line for combination skin (and I can only assume the same for other skin-types.)

Cleanser: I start with Checks and Balances which is a great face wash that isn't too drying or damaging to sensitive skin.

Toner/"balancing tonic": United States. I don't always use this one but I think it does help to use it before moisturizing.

Moisturizers: Make A Difference. Hands down the best moisturizer I've ever used. It's expensive but one sub will last you at least 6 months, you can use it daily and nightly, and it's just. heavenly. I finish with Have A Nice Day it's SPF-15 and is night and lightweight. I use it every morning and it definitely helps.

Foundation: I use MAC's Select Tint SPF 15 It's liquid which is perfect for me since compact-style foundation doesn't work with my dry skin, but it's not oily or heavy like too many liquid foundations are.

Eyes: I'm a complete MAC girl. I use their eyeshadows pretty much exclusively. I also don't use eyeliner anymore, instead I use one of their superthin brushes to apply eyeshadow over my lash line. I've found that it looks a LOT better than traditional liner does, all the noticeability without the unnaturalness. Mascara: I'm not too picky about mascara honestly, my eyelashes have never given me too many problems, and I don't curl them but I've been using Neutrogena's Full Volume Mascara for the last 6 months or so and I love it. It's got great volume and it never clumps. Also, it's totally safe for sensitive eyes.

Lips: Oh man, I've always just been a chapstick/lip gloss kind of girl and I've found the PERFECT lip gloss. It's Bath and Body Works' Tutti Dolci Lip Gloss. It comes in 6 flavors of varying tints and I'm absolutely in love with the Chocolate Fondue. Not only does it taste better than any lipgloss ever has in the entire world, it lasts FOREVER and its goes on smooth and light. It's honestly the perfect lip gloss. You should ALL try it. Seriously, I went to the store, tried it on, licked my lips, and went holy shit I need to make out with someone my lips taste so good!

Cheeks: I don't use blush but I went to Sephora the other week and while my friend was trying on various products I accidentally fell in love with this horribly expensive blush by Tarte. It's amazing. I've never looked good with blush on but I just dabbed the Blushing Bride on (no technique required!) and all of a sudden I had fabulous cheekbones! I resisted buying it but I've been thinking about it all week so I think I should go back and get it.

Body I use some sort of body something every day. My regular body soap is by Lush, it's called Demon in the Dark. It's green and it smells amazing, it's perfect for waking up. It's hmm, the website says minty but I've never found it to be overly minty. I've always found it to be fun and kicky. When I'm really treating myself though I go for my Bath and Body Works Relax Sugar Scrub. It's the sandalwood rose scent and it's absolutely amazing. The scent is incredibly relaxing, and it lasts long after you get out of the shower. Everytime I use it at least one person tells me that I smell good. Stuff like this makes me wish that the internet was scratch and sniff because there's no way to accurately describe the fabulousness that is the sandalwood rose scent.

Sunscreen: I've got really, really fair skin. I burn within 15 minutes of going outdoors if I don't have sunscreen. My whole life could probably be described as a quest to find the perfect sunscreen. And I've done it. It's Ocean Potion SPF 50. It has Parsol 1789 in it which is the KEY ingredient for protecting against sunburns, it's oil free and not at all greasy, and best off, it smells fantastic. It doesn't smell anything like sunscreen. You'll never feel gross and sunscreen-sticky again if you use this stuff. Seriously, it's fan-fucking-tastic.

Anyone else have recs?

ashlle1 posted about this the other day and it's by far the coolest thing ever if you're into computer geekery and awesome Firefox tricks. So, we all know that Firefox (and Camino) are the coolest browsers out there, right? Well, they just got that much cooler, check this out (completely copy-pasted from ashlle1):

The TIP is for Firefox users. I don't know if this works in Mozilla or Netscape, and it likely doesn't work (the same way) for any other browser. But! Ye olde Firefox users, hear me! Have you learned the magic of the special bookmark keywords? Here's how it works:

You bookmark something, as normal. Let's say the LJ Update page, for giggles. Then you go up to the Bookmarks > Manage Bookmarks option. Click on the entry of the page you just bookmarked, and click on properties. It should give you a dialogue giving you options for name, location, keyword, and description. You can name it however you like, but hey, typing in the HTTP address is too hard. Soooo, let's give this a keyword. Mine is "lj.update", but yours can be whatever you want (and will remember). Type it in, press okay, and go back to the main browser. Now anytime you want to make an LJ entry, you simply type "lj.update" or your keyword of choice in the address bar, and bam, there you are.

Too hard to get to your friends page as it is? Save time! Bookmark it with a keyword of 'fl', and in no time you can be hitting the refresh key, waiting for updates.

Let's make this a step more advanced. Oftentimes I like to look up things on Amazon or the IMDB, but entering from the main page just takes far too long. Granted, you can download a plugin (at least for Amazon.com) that'll allow you to search the site, but what about the other sites? Let's use IMDB as an example.

Go to the IMDB site, and perform a search for anything. Let's say Adam Brody. [note: just search for adam for this example] When the search page comes up, bookmark it, and follow the same procedure as before to get to the properties of the bookmark you just made. Now, look in the location string. You should see, somewhere in that HTTP, Adam. Replace Adam with %s. No quotation marks anywhere. Then give it a keyword - 'imdb', say. Now say okay, and go back to your browser. In the address bar, type in 'imdb Viggo Mortenson' or who/whatever you'd like to search for. You should immediately be taken to your search results - no extra steps necessary.

A similar process applies for any site you like. %s refers to the text string you enter after your keyword. For example, I have http://www.livejournal.com/users/%s bookmarked with the keyword 'lj', and from there, I can go to any LJer's journal (lj ashlle1) or their friendslist (lj corialis/friends) or their friendsfriends list (lj ashlle1/friendsfriends) or their archives (lj lestrange/calendar) or what have you. I have a similar search string at Half.com, Amazon, IMDB. You could do it for Schnoogle, where you'd simply have to type in the author name. Basically, any site that has a regular search string or hierarchical structure can have this applied to it.

In other news, I saw movies this weekend:

Finding Neverland is a wonderful movie. I loved Johnny Depp; and the movie was really well shot. Also, Dustin Hoffman played the least Hoffman-like character I've ever seen. So yeah, go see it, it's a great story.

I also saw National Treasure this weekend. It was, well, not necessarily a good movie, but it was damned entertaining and good fun. Sean Bean was wonderful as always. And if you can ignore the historical innaccuracies and concentrate on the fun, you'll enjoy it. Then again I'm a huge sucker for psuedo-archaelogical, adventure stories.